Prophylactic knee braces are designed to prevent and reduce the severity of ligamentous injuries to the knee. Conflicting evidence is reported concerning their efficacy. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of prophylactic knee bracing on the proprioceptive parameters of balance and joint position sense. Active and passive joint position sense were assessed using the Cybex II +...

Debris flow is a very destructive natural disaster. This paper presents a novel masonry structure with strong resistance to debris flow—by using walls that are set with braces and filled with straw bricks. This structure was designed according to the concepts of sustainability. In order to study the dynamic response of this novel masonry structure under debris flow, finite element models of dif...

The routine use of functional knee braces in the anterior cruciate ligament-deficient, injured, or reconstructed knee, lacks biomechanical support. Although subjective reports favoring bracing are plentiful, objective proof of significant control of tibial translation is not. This in vivo study was designed to assess the effect of six popular braces on anterior tibial translation, isokinetic pe...

This study quantified and compared the efficacy of in-shoe orthoses and ankle braces in stabilizing the hindfoot and medial longitudinal arch in a cadaveric model of acquired flexible flatfoot deformity. This was addressed by combining measurement of hindfoot and arch kinematics with plantar pressure distribution, produced in response to axial loads simulating quiet standing. Experiments were c...

Several published articles suggest that an untreated progressive idiopathic scoliosis (IS) curve may present a poor prognosis into adulthood including back pain, pulmonary compromise, cor pulmonale, psychosocial effects, and even death [Rowe 1998, Danielsson et al 2006, Danielsson et al. 2007, Weinstein et al. 1981, Weinstein and Ponsetty 1983, Weinstein et al 2003]. Bracing, even though it has...

Abstract We consider the problem of finding an inductive construction, based on vertex splitting, triangulated spheres with a fixed number additional edges (braces). show that for any positive integer b there is such construction triangulations braces, having finitely many base graphs. In particular we establish bound maximum size graph braces linear in . case $$b=1$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http:...

The bicontraction of a vertex v of degree two in a graph, with precisely two neighbours v1 and v2, consists of shrinking the set {v1, v, v2} to a single vertex. The retract of a matching covered graph G, denoted by Ĝ, is the graph obtained from G by repeatedly bicontracting vertices of degree two. Up to isomorphism, the retract of a matching covered graph G is unique. If G is a brace on six or ...

Background: Rupture of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) would cause instability and disability and if left untreated. Reconstruction is performed by different techniques including patellar bone graft, as the strongest device. Application of brace after ACL reconstructions has revealed doubtful results. Methods: One hundred ACL ruptured patients randomized into two groups were reconstructed with...

The main aim of this study, is to evaluate the seismic reliability of steel concentrically braced frame (SCBF) structures optimally designed in the context of performance-based design. The Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method and neural network (NN) techniques were utilized to conduct the reliability analysis of the optimally designed SCBFs. Multi-layer perceptron (MLP) trained by back propagati...

Osteoarthritis of the knee is a debilitating condition affecting increasing numbers of individuals each year. One option for treatment is orthotic knee braces, but a little independent reviews have taken place to date on their relative outcomes for users. This study therefore evaluates the efficacy of different types of knee orthoses (braces) with regard to key aspects of use, including gait pa...